Couple, Rural Man Charged With Abuse, MolestationSuspects Being Held On $200,000 Bail

PRYOR, Okla. -- Mayes County prosecutors have filed felony counts
against a rural Pryor man and a couple for allegedly binding the couple's
8- year-old boy and piercing his genitals with a hog ring, authorities
said.

Jimmy Elrod, 36, Denise Elrod, 38, and Robert Crane, 37, were charged
earlier this week with injury to a child and lewd molestation. Crane and
the Elrods are each being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.

The Elrods are the adoptive parents of the boy and his 9-year-old sister.
A Mayes County deputy on Friday removed the siblings from Crane's home and
placed them in protective custody, sheriff's investigator Doug Parent
said. The Elrods were staying with Crane in a two-bedroom house west of
Pryor.

Authorities arrested the Elrods and Crane on Saturday after the boy was
examined by a doctor at Tulsa's Juvenile Justice Center, which verified
statements he made to authorities, Parent said.

Denise Elrod told deputies that the boy was tied up at night to stop him
from masturbating, and that the hog ring was applied for the same reason.

According to a search warrant affidavit, the boy, who had rope burns on
his wrists, said he "was tied up at night (on his back) to a black storage
box, with his hands elevated above his head then wrapped in a sheet and
sweat shirt so that he couldn't get up and go to the bathroom, and he had
accidents on the floor."

The boy stated that he was usually tied up at night by Crane or Jimmy
Elrod, the affidavit said. The boy's sister, and sometimes Denise Elrod,
untied him in the mornings, the search warrant said.

...

Further investigation also revealed that "within the last few months a hog
ring was attached to (the boy's) penis causing piercing of the skin," the
affidavit said. That was also confirmed by the doctor at the Justice
Center who examined the boy, authorities said.

The affidavit goes on to note that Denise Elrod saw the hog ring on the
boy about six months ago and "that it was left on for about a week."

According to the affidavit, Denise Elrod said Crane or possibly her
husband attached the hog ring.

...

[The question immediately arises, Why is it "lewd molestation" to put a ring in a boy's penis at the age of eight, but not to cut off part of his penis at birth?]

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

Finnish Unitarian Leader Condemns Circumcision

Antti Pelkola, duly elected Chairman of the Unitarian
Universalist Society of Finland (equivalent of President of the US society), has today clearly stated his censure of male circumcision:

*As a Unitarian, I believe in naturalness and the freedom to choose as
basic guidelines. As long as it has not been proven otherwise,
circumcision represents not only an act against nature but a procedure
which encroaches on a child's right to self-determination, from which
commercial advantage is obtained primarily by physicians and self-styled
barbers (in the event they are paid for their work), as well as bigots who
wish to identify those of the "right persuasion" on the basis of their
physical appearance.

"God, I feel, looks elsewhere.

"Hair and fingernails can be cut -- they grow back. Irreversible
operations are, however, even at their most beneficial, akin to cosmetic
foolery which should -- in appealing specifically to the protection of
children -- be completely prohibited."

(He goes on to suggest that though a foreskin can be surgically replaced
later, the risks and costs of such an operation are such that circumcision
can not be justified on such a pretext alone.)

[Chairman Pelkola is the first religious leader of recent times to condemn circumcision on other than anti-Semitic grounds.]

AFRICAN tribal doctors operating in Dublin are under investigation by the
health authorities for performing botched circumcisions on babies of
immigrant families.

At least two infants were rushed to hospital for blood transfusions after
Nigerian doctors performed "kitchen table" circumcisions at the request of
their parents. ...

Peter McKenna, master of
the Rotunda hospital in Dublin, said "back-street" circumcisions carried
unnecessary risks. "There is the danger of haemorrhaging, and you can run
into problems like distortion with the healing," he said. "I am not
convinced we should do it for social reasons. If it's medically necessary,
then of course, but I don't think you should cut bits off of people
without their consent."